| FEL-273362-21 | Research Programs: Fellowships | Jonathan Marc Gribetz | Reading Herzl in Beirut: The PLO's Research on Judaism and Israel | 6/1/2021 - 5/31/2022 | $60,000.00 | Jonathan | Marc | Gribetz | | | | Princeton University | Princeton | NJ | 08540-5228 | USA | 2020 | Near and Middle Eastern History | Fellowships | Research Programs | 60000 | 0 | 60000 | 0 | Completion of a book on the history of a research center and library formerly maintained in Beirut, Lebanon by the Palestine Liberation Organization.
In mid-September 1982, just as they invaded West Beirut, Israeli forces raided a high-rise in the Lebanese capital. Though the building belonged to the Palestine Liberation Organization, the targets inside were neither militants nor weapons. The Israeli soldiers were there to capture a library—a library that was filled with books about Jews, Zionism, and Israel. Reading Herzl in Beirut, the monograph I am writing, is a book about that library, the institution that collected it (the PLO Research Center), the researchers who used it, the scholarship they produced in it, and, ultimately, the impact of the knowledge produced there on the course of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. How did learning about the enemy inform Palestinian politics and the acceptance of a two-state solution? With the generous support of an NEH Fellowship, I will complete my manuscript, under contract with Princeton University Press, during a year based in Jerusalem, with visits to Beirut, Ramallah, and Cyprus. |